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'Glam rock' (also known as 'glitter rock'), is a style of rock and roll music, which initially surfaced in the post-hippie early 1970s. Largely an English phenomenon, glam rock had its peak between the years of 1971 and 1973, and was made famous by acts such as David Bowie, T. Rex, Slade, Gary Glitter, Queen, Sweet, Alvin Stardust, Sparks, Mud, Roxy Music, Brian Eno, Cockney Rebel, Lou Reed and Mott The Hoople. In the United States, glam made far less of a commercial impression and was largely confined to enclaves of fans in the cities of New York, Detroit, Cleveland and Los Angeles. American bands included Alice Cooper, Kiss, New York Dolls, Iggy Pop and Wayne County.
Glam fans (usually referred to as "glitter kids") and performers distinguished themselves from the denim-clad hippie-hordes with sci-fi/mythological/Hollywood glamour/ambisexual-inspired costumes, which were perceived as glamorous by the press. The music was characterised by languid, narcotic ballads and raunchy, high-energy Rolling Stones–influenced rock n‘ roll stylings. Lyrically, the genre's emphasis was most often centered on standard rock themes, but classic literature, mythology, esoteric philosophy (such as in David Bowie's Starman, a term taken from Aleister Crowley), science fiction and especially "teenage revolution" (such as in T. Rex's "Children of the Revolution", Sweet’s "Teenage Rampage", and David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel") were also key subjects.
With then-recent homosexual reforms in the United Kingdom and the militant Stonewall Riots in the U.S., sexual ambiguity was briefly in vogue as an effective "shock tactic". Some bands took to playing in makeup and drag. However, some glam performers and fans dressed in nostalgic and "space age" costumes (or combinations of the two) ranging from unique interpretations of Victorian, cabaret, and futuristic styles. The best-known example of the "glam spaceman" was David Bowie, during his Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane phases, 1972–73. In early 1972, former singer-songwriter Bowie radically changed his image and sound, telling the press he was "gay" (although he actually meant "bisexual"). Genuinely gay glam musicians were actually quite rare. The late Jobriath was among rock's first openly gay stars, while Queen's Freddie Mercury stayed mostly "in the closet" until he, too, died of AIDS.

Contents

Progenitors

Glam rock in theater and cinema

Subsequent influence

Glam rock acts

Further reading

See also

External links

Progenitors

Although owing a considerable debt to pioneers fusing a camp image with a hard rock sound like Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Little Richard, the Kinks, Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett and others, much of the credit for the genre's crucial crystallisation of camp, glamour and raunch is given to Marc Bolan of T. Rex. Bolan scored his first major glam-era "Ride A White Swan" hit in late 1970.(David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust persona appeared to public shock and acclaim almost a year and a half after Bolan and T. Rex had become household names). Other UK proponents included Queen, Elton John, Slade, Mud, Gary Glitter, Sweet, Mott the Hoople and early Roxy Music including Brian Eno.

In America, glam rock was most prominently represented by the proto-punk New York Dolls, whose Rolling Stones-influenced rock and roll was matched by their frilly yet macho 'dandified street gang' look. Fellow New Yorker Wayne County took the whole thing to its logical extremes and had far less success. On the other hand, the premiere female glam rocker Suzi Quatro cultivated a 'tough biker chick' image, leather-clad and playing bass guitar.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, another key American influence to the development of the glam rock genre was Iggy Pop who came out of the Detroit and Southeast Michigan rock scene. Alice Cooper, also from the Detroit rock scene, combined hard rock music with a 'transvestite' look and a provocative, theatrical stage show, a vague precurser to Glam in style, though not in attitude (Cooper is noted moreso as shock rock). Alice Cooper was extremely successful, but it was cartoon-like metal-pop Kiss (formed New York City, 1973) who became the most enduring of the American glitter bands.
In the US, glam was primarily a rock music phenomenon. In the UK, it was popular across both rock and pop spheres, and hit singles were the norm for glam acts. A trend amongst some of the more chart-oriented Glam rock groups was releasing a Christmas single, examples of which are Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody", Wizzard’s "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday", Mud's 'Lonely This Christmas' and Gary Glitter's "Another Rock N' Roll Christmas". These tracks still receive heavy yuletide rotation in the United Kingdom.
With the blooming popularity of Glam as a rock genre, several local bands and stylistic variants appeared. In Australia there was Skyhooks, in New Zealand, Space Waltz, Belgium had Downtrip, Brazil Edy Star, Canada had Sweeney Todd, Mabel from Denmark, Tiger B. Smith from Germany, Catapult from the Netherlands, Brakaman from Spain and Sweden produced Tears. In Italy, Renato Zero had already sported an androgyne appearance (including heavy make-up) in the late 1960s, but with little success (when he became popular in the late-1970s, he was criticized as having 'borrowed' the look from Bowie and Cooper). Whilst Bowie and Kiss were especiallly popular in Japan, a local glam rock movement only manifested itself widely at the close of the 1970s, with bands such as the Sadistic Mika Band and Vodka Collins recording for EMI.

Glam rock in theater and cinema

Evoking the glamour of 'Old Hollywood' whilst wallowing in the mire of 1970s drug and sleaze success, the stars of Andy Warhol's films and his stage play ''Pork'' were crucially influential on the nascent glam movement. In hindsight, Edie Sedgewick may be seen as a very early 'look good/live fast/die young' glam star, but Wayne County in particular was a key influence on David Bowie. Other Warhol Superstars like Jackie Curtis, Viva, Cherry Vanilla were also influential on the glam rock visual style.
Although little referenced in the following list, themes of spaceflight and alien encounters were also prevalent at the more cerebral end of the Glam rock spectrum. The Apollo moon landings took place simultaneously with glam's birth and rise to popularity, and supposedly heralded the dawn of the "Space Age". Glam style strongly referenced the "Space Age" with silver astronaut-like outfits, mulitcoloured hair and allusions to a new gay-friendly social morality.
'Some examples of movies that reflect Glam Rock include:'

★ Brian DePalma's ''Phantom of the Paradise'';

★ ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'';

★ T. Rex's documentary ''Born To Boogie'';

★ David Bowie's ''The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust'';

★ Alice Cooper's ''Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper'', '' and ''Welcome to My Nightmare (film)'';

★ Gary Glitter's ''Remember Me This Way'';

★ Slade's ''Flame'';

★ Robert Fuest's ''Final Programme'' (1973);

★ ''20th Century Oz'' (1976);

★ ''Side By Side'' (1975);

★ ''Never too Young to Rock'' (1975);

★ ''KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park'' (1978);

★ Todd Haynes's ''Velvet Goldmine'' (1998);

★ John Cameron Mitchell's film version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001);

★ Neil Jordan's ''Breakfast on Pluto'' (2005);

★ Velvet Goldmine'';

Subsequent influence

Although not a hugely successful genre in term of record sales (nothing like Disco, which became immensely popular over glam rock's declining years), glam's air of wilful decadence, society-baiting clothes, near-cultish behaviour and pop-rock sound were a major influence upon the punk rock movement of the late 1970s. Bowie and Bolan held a huge sway but it was the New York Dolls in particular who most influenced early Punk bands such as the Heartbreakers (which included two ex-Dolls), Ramones, Sex Pistols, Voidoids, Dead Boys, The Damned (with whom Marc Bolan toured during 1977) and Siouxsie And The Banshees.
The Gothic rock movement, particularly the bands who played at the Batcave in London (such as Specimen) took obvious cues from glam, in particular Roxy Music and David Bowie. Another movement from around the same time was dubbed the "''New Romantics''" and included the likes of Adam and the Ants, Culture Club, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Dead Or Alive, Visage, Norman Iceberg and Soft Cell. Bands in other countries locked onto the glam look and sound, such as Hanoi Rocks of Finland.
In the 1980s, the Los Angeles music scene spawned glam metal bands, including Motley Crue, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Poison, Cinderella and many, many others, who were vaguely influenced by Glam in appearance and pop sensibility, but were more akin to metal in attitude and sound. Their look and sound dominated MTV for several years.
In the 1990s, Britpop strongly referenced glam rock, with bands like Oasis taking Slade and Mott The Hoople among their primary influences. Placebo, Suede, Manic Street Preachers and Spacehog are other notable United Kingdom bands from this time, with heavy glam rock leanings. Morrissey's album Your Arsenal is also a paradigm example of this trend.
Marilyn Manson's album Mechanical Animals was heavily influenced by 1970s glam rock, and Manson created the androgynous space alien "Omega".
Although glam rock's outrage value has long passed and in the purest sense is rarely played anymore, Canadian band Robin Black and the I.R.S. and Swedish band The Ark are examples of a modern day incarnation.

Glam rock acts

★ List of glam rock artists

Further reading

★ Philip Auslander, ''Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music'' Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2006 ISBN-10 0472068687

See also

★ Androgyny

★ Gender role

★ Glam punk

★ Glam metal

External links

★ A History of UK Glam Rock